Force of Nature by spelos

[raw]

made by spelos for LD 38 (JAM)

Description

Force of Nature is a small hand-drawn survival management game where you take the role of a god who oversees a group of survivors who crashed on an island. It is your task to help them gather enough resources and protect them from danger, ultimately allowing them to escape the island.
@spelos (Lead programmer)
@Karba (Lead artist)

How to play

[A][D] => Wind-Push: Pushes all survivors slightly to the left or right. (Has cooldown)
[W] => Tidal wave: Summons a large tidal wave. All survivors get colder.
[SPACE] => Earthquake: Makes survivors gather resources for a few seconds. (Hurts them by 10 HP) | Deflects Cthulhu when - attacking
[E] => Escape: Evacuates survivors when enough resources (150 Wood, 200 Stone, 5+ survivors) is collected.

Q&A

My survivors don't gather resources I want them to get - That is the challenge, use Wind-Push and Earthquake to try to get them to cooperate. Alternatively, build a Hut and get more survivors, surely some will cooperate.
My survivor just stands and does nothing / Works without result without end - Earthquake ability usually helps survivors get their priorities straight.
I don't understand how to protect survivors - When an enemy is attacking, you have to use Earthquake ability before he gets to the middle of the island. If you fail, the enemy kills a random survivor from your group.
I have enough resources, but the game still continues - To evacuate survivors when ready, you need to press [E].

Download

Direct Download (Dropbox)

Original URL

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/force-of-nature

Ratings

Overall	401^th	3.333⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Fun	553^th	2.85⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	149^th	3.65⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Theme	208^th	3.75⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	230^th	3.9⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Humor	216^th	3.111⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Mood	207^th	3.6⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Given		15🗳️	13🗨️

Feedback

jushiip

01. May 2017 · 06:15 UTC

I liked the game. Some concerns: I didn't feel like the A / D wind push was helping me much, maybe the force could be stronger - or the cool down smaller. Also, what's the point of the tidal wave? Does it help to cool down the survivors?

They could have just swum (not sure about my English grammar) to the city! It was RIGHT next to them! :D

Christian Koch

01. May 2017 · 08:18 UTC

The game itself has a pretty calm audio and the characters are pretty cute. But why do they not obey? I had like 200-300 wood before they listened to the almighty wave and earthquake master and started to go to the stone. The wind push hasnt helped. I tried to push them into the stone but they just started walking to the tree instead. I then got mad and earthquaked them a lot. Then they understod. I had a fun and relaxing experience. And just two people died due to Cthulhu (or however he is spelled). So, yeah, that was fun.

Hadik

01. May 2017 · 13:20 UTC

Nice entry :)

Bunnery

04. May 2017 · 11:16 UTC

Was attracted to the game by the hand-drawn graphics - they look really good :-) Not sure I was playing the game correctly - as the wind didn't seem to push the survivors where I wanted them to go! But, if you expand the game and make it easier to move the little guys I'd definitely play again!

Max Amaden

07. May 2017 · 15:03 UTC

I really liked this little game, it's got a nice little atmosphere and the hand-drawn artwork looks really quite fantastic. It can be a bit hard to get the hang of at first, and getting people to do what you want them to do can be quite a challenge, but it quickly becomes a really fun game :)

**Keep up the good work!**

Note: You misspelled 'Cthulhu' in the instructions at the top-right of the screen ;)

conk

13. May 2017 · 12:34 UTC

Not bad, I liked the graphics and concept, but once I had finally got the resources I had to spam D for a few minutes to get a survivor to the boat so I could win, was a little tedious. After building a hut I realised the point of it (more survivors) but the fire seemed like a waste of resource, did it do anything? Same with the tidal wave, not sure of its purpose. Good job (:

RAC-Games

13. May 2017 · 12:46 UTC

Just finished your game and I really liked it. The theme was nicely implemented and the hand-drawn graphics are very charming and add to the go-getting mood of your game. I especially liked the saemless transitions from the intro screen to the game and from the game to the end screen. The game idea was quite original and it was fun to lead your little survivors to escape the island.

Like others said, it could be a little difficult to get your survivors do the stuff you want and I don't get what the tidal wave is useful for. I should also mention that at the start of every of my games Cthulhu attacked right away killing 2 survivors. That could have a negative effect on people playing the game for the first time.

Apart from this the game feels very sound and I had a pleasant playthrough.
Good luck and keep up the good work :-)

jk5000

13. May 2017 · 18:04 UTC

A very cute and fun little game.

Asturk

14. May 2017 · 14:50 UTC

Really fun and kinda cute game to play! I just think the mechanic was kinda hard to understand, but the idea of this game is really good! Keep it up and good job!

MHGameWork

14. May 2017 · 16:26 UTC

Very cool entry. I dont know where you got your ideas but they are surely innovative. The artstyle is very pretty, the animations are great!

I like the mood this game sets by having the survivors on the island. You as the force of nature are somewhat ineffective yet influencing the game.

It did feel somewhat lacking in the gameplay department, as a player you have to figure out what each buttons does, but from there on its just mashing them and waiting for cooldowns. A bit more choice/challenge and input feedback would help alot.

Nonetheless, Great entry!

TeamMonumental

15. May 2017 · 05:38 UTC

I really love the idea of this game and the animations/art style works great. The main problem I had is that sometimes the abilities just didn't work. I don't know if there is an internal cooldown or what, but I could not for the life of me push the people to the stone. I knew how to, but it just didn't happen. I'm not sure if you just ran out of time to playtest, but if the gameplay and "bugs" can be improved/fixed this could be an extremely good game. The sound and ambience is also good but idk who made it. Decent entry overall though, I can't stress enough how much I liked the idea!

pschichtel

15. May 2017 · 13:04 UTC

I'd like to play this game, but sadly there is no Linux/Web version. :(

pascalman

15. May 2017 · 14:48 UTC

I not have Windows but game looks great! Art is beautiful! Good job!

Moonleaf

16. May 2017 · 17:53 UTC

I enjoyed your game! I also had trouble seeing the effect of A/D to the game. When I press the space the characters moved up/down, but when I was pressing A/D nothing seemed to happen. Art and music are great and gave me a nice feeling.
If you have time, we'd love to hear what you have to say about ours https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atomic-clicker

bog13

16. May 2017 · 19:42 UTC

There aren't enough feedback when using windpush and I didn't understand well what the tidal wave is for. Great graphics and nice sound :)

Flaterectomy

16. May 2017 · 20:12 UTC

An interesting take on survival games - we always assume the survivors _want_ to live, but there must be lethargic ones that need motivation. I could not for the life of me windpush them towards the rocks though, so I ended up with loads of wood and no stone. The game lacks feedback, I couldn't tell when an earthquake hit, and the lack of visual feedback on the cooldowns left me just mashing buttons.

The art is nice, it has that sketchy look without looking as if you didn't care for it. The music is cute and adds a calm atmosphere. Not sure that's wanted when Cthulhu appears, though. I would've liked some sound effects.